29 Aug Bringing America Closer To Olympic Gold
Nearly $100K Awarded At Stage 1 of Triple Crown
OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK (August 26, 2018) – Stage 1 of the Oakcliff Triple Crown Series brought together 44 of the top North American sailors in the 49er, FX, and Nacra 17. Four of the competitors were US Olympians: Trevor Burd, Chris Rast, Paris Henken, and Anna Tunnicliffe, who has a gold medal in the laser radial.
Nearly one hundred thousand dollars of prize grants were awarded to competitors based on performance in this regatta. These prize grants will be applied towards subsidizing the costs of their Olympics campaigns.
Rast and Burd led the 49er fleet with a score line that included four bullets out of twelve races. Five points behind were Andrew Mollerus and Ian MacDiarmid. In third were Nevin Snow and Mac Agnese who also had four wins on their score line.
“The conditions were really puffy and tricky so our strategy was to stay consistent and take the points where we could get them…turning sixes into fours and threes into twos if we could,” said Burd, who actually competed in a local triathlon before the second day of racing. “I just wanted to stretch out the legs before racing, you know?” he said with a laugh.
Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea took first in the 49erFX. Just two points behind were Kate Shaner and Charlotte Mack, who gave it their all and passed Roble and Shea by a hair with a flawless gybe in the last minute of the final race but stayed just behind in points. In third were Henken and Tunnicliffe.
“There were really strong lefties and really strong righties but not much down the middle, said Shaner. “It was hard to anticipate which way it would go so we talked before each start and just stayed ready for anything.”
Caroline Atwood and Ravi Parent dominated the Nacra 17s winning half of all their races. Sara Newberry and David Liebenberg took second place five points behind and Ben Rosenberg and Sidney Charbonnet took third place.
“We had a lot of confidence in our boat speed and we were giving ourselves opportunities to use it,” said Atwood. “When we were in front we were covering and trusting in our boat speed to get us through shifty conditions. When we were behind we were splitting and trusting in our boat speed to give us enough leverage to come back at the top.”
Atwood, Parent, Newberry, and Liebenberg will all now head to Newport where they will continue training against one another before they put a few weeks in down at the US Sailing Training Center in Miami, FL.
Oakcliff Sailing is an adult and youth training center for athletes who have progressed beyond traditional coaching methods and want to take the next step in their career. We offer trainees a proving ground to develop their skills in the three big veins of professional sailing: the America’s Cup, the Olympics, and around-the-world races. Our goal is to take American sailing back to the highest level world-wide.